Maude is the recipient of fourteen honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), the 2005 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Fellowship Award, the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Environment Awards, the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award, the 2009 Planet in Focus Eco Hero Award, and the 2011 EarthCare Award, the highest international honour of the Sierra Club (US).

“Do not listen to those who say there is nothing you can do to the very real and large social and environmental issues of our time. There are serious problems that beset our world. I'm not now talking about a false sense of optimism based on ignoring the very real crises we face, but there is so much room for hope. And such a need to bring joy and excitement to our commitment to a different future. I swear to you this is true. The life of an activist is a good life because you get up in the morning caring about more than just yourself or how to make money. A life of activism gives hope, which is a moral imperative in this work and in this world. It gives us energy and it gives us direction. You meet the nicest people, you help transform ideas and systems and you commit to leaving the earth in at least as whole a condition as you inherited it.”

—Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, June 2009, addressing Trent University after receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws.

From Maude's Blog...

I am writing this to urge you to read a new book called Corporatizing Canada: Making Business out of Public Service, edited by Jamie Brownlee, Chris Hurl and Kevin Walby and published by Between the Lines.
The book contains 16 chapters on many aspects of this important and dangerous development written by the top experts in the field in Canada. While they are all excellent, I must give a...

Last week, legal expert David Schneiderman brilliantly argued in the Globe and Mail that rather than consulting with Canadians over the practice of including investor-state clauses that allow foreign investors to challenge government laws and regulations in trade agreements, Canada should drop them all together. He correctly pointed out that the Trudeau government appears wedded to the concept of...

Investor-state dispute settlement was tempered in the USMCA, but the government needs to justify why it persists asking for it in other agreements.
Blog written by Maude Barlow and Sujata Dey posted in the Huffington Post, October 19, 2018.
The current Liberal government recently had a road to Damascus moment. After defending Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions (ISDS) around the world...

Canadian and American negotiators came to agreement on a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), or NAFTA 2.0.
First, the good news. Thanks to Council of Canadians supporters fighting for trade that is truly fair, together over the last year we pushed relentlessly for and won two significant changes in this new deal:
Chapter 11 between Canada and the U.S. is gone. The investor-state...

Public forum on the TransCanada's Energy East project at Dalhousie University, Sunday October 26, 2014. - Tim Krochak
Op-ed published in The Chronicle Herald, October 1, 2018
This week, the Maritimes Energy Association will host its Core energy conference on Canada’s East Coast energy future. Unfortunately, far too much of the conference will focus on the energy of the past.
This summer’s...